Open Doors Read online

  The edges seemed to soften on her glare, just a little.

  Maybe a slight thaw to the frost?

  “I know it’s a lot of money,” he continued, “but we did this the right way. We didn’t half-ass it and leave ourselves exposed. Seriously, Kaden didn’t charge me anything but fees, not even for his time. Another donation he made to the club. Normally he’d charge fifteen grand—”

  “Fifteen grand? Are you shitting me?”

  Okay, they were heading in the wrong direction. “The point is, we’re good. We’re golden. From insurance, to liability, to asset protection. We are secure and protected. And Kel is protected.”

  She stared at him for a long, long time. He’d actually started holding his breath as he waited, which he only realized when he had to breathe, or pass out.

  “You fucking owe me,” she finally said.

  “I know.”

  “You owe me a lot.”

  “I know.”

  She sighed and tipped her head back, staring at the ceiling for a minute. “I am not cleaning fucking bathrooms. You get to do that, Mister Master.” She leveled her gaze at him. “Understood?”

  He nodded. “Totally. Bathroom grunt. Got it.”

  She poked him in the chest. “What other surprises have you not told me about yet? Because, seriously, you drop another one like this on me? I’m divorcing your ass.”

  “This was it. I swear.” It would have been better had he not screwed up. His plan had been to do a loan to the company and pay Kaden out of that in a couple of installments, so it didn’t appear to Marcia’s eagle eyes like such a large hit all at once to the budget.

  Then again, she likely would have seen right through his ruse when she took over the bookkeeping for the club. He hadn’t anticipated she’d get quite this involved in the back-end of things.

  In a way, it was good that she was. Knowing his tenacious wife, it would pretty much insure the club’s success.

  She stared him down for several long, uncomfortable minutes during which he was way too smart to interrupt by talking. Finally, she blew out another long breath and when she spoke, her tone had gentled.

  “I’m serious. I don’t want this to fuck up our marriage or our business or our lives.”

  “It won’t. I won’t let it.”

  As she pulled herself out of the chair, he stood. When he opened his arms to her for a hug, she finally stepped into his embrace.

  “Don’t let me down, mister,” she mumbled against his chest.

  He kissed the top of her head. “Baby, I won’t. I swear. You’re the most important thing to me, in my life.”

  She looked up at him. “I’d better be.” But her smile told him he was forgiven.

  Mostly.

  Because then she poked him, hard, in the chest. “You’re taking me out for dinner, buddy. I shouldn’t have to cook. If we can blow eight grand on that damn club, you can spring for pizza.”

  “Done.”

  She let him kiss her before disengaging from his embrace. She grabbed the papers from his desk and shook them at him. “You were going to have these sent to the club, weren’t you?”

  He wasn’t stupid enough to try to lie his way out of it. “Yeah.”

  “Forgot, huh?”

  He nodded.

  She slowly shook her head at him before heading to the door. “Don’t you ever try that shit again, either, buddy. Or you’ll have one pissed off slave on your hands who won’t mind going all Toppy on your ass for once.”

  She left, closing the door behind her.

  Fortunately, not slamming it shut.

  He rounded his desk and heavily sat.

  That was close.

  It didn’t take long before a smile creased his face. If Marcia had forgiven him that quickly and easily, it meant she wasn’t nearly as upset as she let on. Yes, she was upset. No doubt about that.

  He also knew that she likely understood that, in the long run, they’d made the smart move by doing this, even though it cost them money up front. They would eventually get the money back from the club. It might take a while, but it would happen.

  Because by doing things this way, it meant they could really go forward with it without fear and make it a success.

  Chapter Ten

  With all the paperwork now safely filed, and with all the legal Is dotted and Ts crossed, Derrick and Marcia set out to plan the second party. Yes, a week later than they’d intended to hold it, but that was all right.

  This party would be even better. Larger. Because now they could do things properly.

  Marcia bought an inexpensive laptop for the club and, with Julie’s help, created an Excel spreadsheet to go with the membership liability forms Kaden and Ed had come up with. Everyone would get a membership number so they wouldn’t have to fill out forms every time they came. Just once a year. For tonight, she was dropping them facedown into a banker’s box to be three-hole-punched and filed in binders later.

  Note to self, pre-punch the forms.

  And buy a printer that makes cheap copies.

  At this rate, they’d have the office fully equipped before it was even built.

  She also created a daily sales spreadsheet to help her with the bookkeeping later on.

  And she’d purchased four long folding tables and set them up where the path through the screens emptied. People could stand there and fill out the forms at the tables before making it to her at the computer. Leah would run the USDOJ sex offender search before taking their money or swiping their credit card, while Marcia entered their information into the computer.

  To make things more palatable for the temporary price hike, they were giving people the night for “free” as part of their annual membership fee. For the next year, after this party, they would be all the same lower price.

  So far, the RSVPs with the modified rules, pricing, and information, were still rolling in just as fast as they had for the first party, if not faster.

  No one seemed to mind the new “no sex” rule, once they clarified that vibrator and orgasm play was allowed, just no actual sex.

  Yes, Kaden gloated over that when Marcia remarked on it one evening during a final planning session at the club the Wednesday before their second party.

  “Say it,” she snarked.

  “Told you so,” he quipped. “People would rather play. They can have sex at home. They can’t always spank each other at home. Especially if there are kids or parents living in the same house. They can play here, get horny, and go home or to a hotel to fuck like bunnies.”

  “We’re going to need towels and a washer and dryer,” she said, arching an eyebrow at Kel. “We can’t count on people bringing their own towels like they should, even though we suggest it in the e-mail. I assume our landlord will figure out the logistics on how to make that happen before the third party, as long as we buy the machines?”

  Kel gave her a thumbs-up. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Derrick snickered, elbowing his friend. “See how easy it is? Agreeing with her makes life simple.”

  * * * *

  Not only had the RSVPs rolled in, the requests to invite others to the party had increased. If Marcia’s estimates were correct, they stood a chance of pulling in over two thousand dollars from this party. The first party had covered the rent and electric bill for the space, as well as started chipping away at their personal loans to the club for supplies. This party would help start chipping away at the improvements—and the legal bill for the incorporation paperwork and insurance.

  She’d crunched numbers looking five years into the future. If they were smart, they could have all the personal loans to the business paid back to them, be paying all the bills every month, as well as afford to make all the improvements quickly lengthening her “Dom-Do” list, and then start putting money aside to eventually expand.

  If they moved to being open four Saturdays a month, it would likely cut into the weekly attendance numbers, but it might bring in more new members. And they might be able
to rent the space for photoshoots as well. Plenty of riggers were looking for spaces like that.

  It could be easy income.

  Well, if you counted giving up your Saturdays and working your ass off to support your hobby as “easy”.

  She would never in a million years admit to Derrick how excited she was about this. Yes, she’d been aggravated—and still was—but this was totally doable if they didn’t burn themselves out in the process. They were already going over a short-list of people who’d volunteered for office duty, people they knew they could trust handling computer duties and with the money, not to mention respecting people’s privacy.

  A lot of hard work? Absolutely it would be. At first. Unlike an accounting firm, where they were constantly having to keep abreast of the latest tax laws, where what they did for people was vital, this was different.

  This was fun.

  The people coming in were smiling, happy people, happy to be there, happy to get started doing what they’d come to do, happy to see their friends.

  Seeing an accountant, especially at tax time, was usually akin to seeing a dentist. Necessary, but not enjoyable in the least for most people.

  Unless they were the emotional kind of masochist.

  Even with the additional people, and the paperwork, everyone on their RSVP list had checked in by nine thirty. This time, Derrick was prepared. He had a deposit slip and Marcia prepared a drop for him to run to the bank so they didn’t have to worry about it.

  While he was gone, one of the new members to the munch group walked up.

  “Marcia?”

  She couldn’t remember her name. “Janie?”

  “Jenny.”

  “I’m sorry.” They shook. “What can I do for you?”

  “I was talking to my friend, Kendra, and she said you were looking for volunteers?”

  Behind Jenny, Leah caught Marcia’s eye and shrugged.

  Great, no help there.

  “We’re looking for a lot of volunteers. We’re actually having a meeting next Thursday, here, at eight. We’ll provide pizza and go over what we need and see who’s available to help out.”

  “Okay, great. I don’t even mind doing stuff like taking out the garbage and cleaning. I like to clean.”

  This had potential. “You do?” So far, a lot of people seemed extremely eager to help out in the office—which almost put her off of them as volunteers totally—but other than DMing, few had mentioned helping out with the actual maintenance and upkeep like this.

  Which was a little surprising. She’d thought for sure they’d have several service subs chiming in to help before now.

  Jenny smiled. “I’m a little OCD. Not a lot, but enough. I like to be helpful.”

  Marcia spent some time talking with Jenny. The girl was twenty-two, and a sweetheart.

  She was also recently single, dumped three weeks earlier by her boyfriend, who’d introduced her to the lifestyle. Fortunately, he’d moved out of the area.

  Unfortunately, she’d moved here with him from Georgia six months ago, and only knew three people from the local munch group. Moving back to Georgia wasn’t really an option for her. Besides, she wanted to stay in Florida.

  Now she was recently single, lonely, trying to make new friends outside of work, and trying to meet people in the local community.

  After Derrick returned, Marcia went to talk with him. If it was solely up to her, she’d have already signed Jenny on as a volunteer. After telling him about Jenny, he nodded.

  “If you want her, ask her.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think that I trust your judgment.”

  She went to go bounce it off Loren and Leah first. Their men were helping out as DMs tonight, Kaden currently supervising a fairly rough takedown and feral play scene, Ross tutoring some people in rope.

  In a few minutes, the four women were seated at one of the tables and discussing it. Marcia liked that Jenny had picked up on some of the same issues that she had already noted, and had some good suggestions.

  “My parents ran a professional cleaning service,” Jenny said. “In high school, I spent my summers making extra money cleaning offices with them at night.”

  “Will you come on Thursday at seven thirty, then?” Marcia asked.

  “I’m sorry, I thought you said eight earlier.”

  “I did, but I want to talk with you some more before the meeting starts.”

  Jenny beamed. “Thank you. Oh, if you pick me to volunteer, there will be someone with a key to come let me in, right? I don’t like to be late.”

  Loren and Leah exchanged a glance. “You’re hired,” they said together.

  “Hired?” Marcia asked. “There’s no pay.”

  “You know what we mean,” Leah said. “And if you don’t take her as a volunteer here, I’m going to take her as a volunteer. We just lost three at the charity I fundraise for. Speak now, or she’s coming with me.”

  Marcia figured if her two friends were already on board with Jenny, it’d be stupid for her not to be as well. “Then welcome aboard as our first nondrafted volunteer,” Marcia said. “Seven thirty on Thursday, and you can help me with the prep work.”

  Jenny beamed again. “Thank you.”

  * * * *

  Jenny proved her worth that very night, staying behind after they closed, despite them assuring her it was okay for her to leave, and helping with clean-up.

  She even volunteered to tackle the bathrooms.

  While she was doing that, Derrick walked over to Marcia and leaned in. “She looking for a job? Hire her to take care of our house and office and free yourself a few hours every week. We wouldn’t have to worry about putting the toys away at home.”

  That had been her main objection to hiring a cleaning service for the house, having to worry about their privacy.

  “Seriously,” Leah said. “I’d hire her.”

  Kaden smacked her ass. “We have a cleaning wench. You.”

  She looked up at him and batted her eyes. “But, Sir, it would give me more time to volunteer here and at the charity.”

  Batt batt batt.

  Kaden rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine.” But his smile ratted him out.

  Leah did an adorable little puppy wiggle and kissed him. “Thank you, Sir.”

  Derrick snorted. “Nobody better ever tease me about ‘Mastering wrong’ again.” He directed a pointed gaze at Kel.

  Kel held up his hands. “Hey, you two are married and getting some on a regular basis. You’re obviously doing something right. I claim no moral high ground here. I was just teasing.”

  On the ride home, Marcia was going over her list on her phone.

  “So what did you think tonight?” Derrick asked.

  “I think we have a good start with Jenny, but we’re going to need at least ten other volunteers, in addition to the gang, to help us out. I know we’ll burn our friends out if we rely solely on them.”

  “I meant about the party in general, but okay.”

  Again, they hadn’t had a chance to play. They’d been too busy, and by the time the end of the night arrived, too tired.

  She turned to him. “Derrick, if you wanted a private clubhouse, you failed. We now have a business that has to, at the very least, survive long enough to make us back our money and hit the break-even point. Which, thanks to all the incorporation stuff, will take a while. We now have a business that needs to be run like a business. If you’d asked me all of this before signing the lease with Kel in the first place and deciding we were going to do it, I would have pointed alll of this out to you then. Master,” she added with more than a little snark.

  “In other words, suck it up?”

  “Yeah, basically. I love you, but you have nooo clue what it takes to keep our office going, do you?”

  Honestly? He didn’t. If she died tomorrow, he’d be fucked. “No,” he quietly said.

  She let out a sigh and put down the phone, reaching a hand over and laying it on his thigh. “I
love you. And you’re stuck with me. But honestly? I wonder about you sometimes. Didn’t you think to look at the big picture when you were plotting all of this, or did Kaden forget to mention all of this to you when he was instigating?”

  “I guess I didn’t.” He laced his fingers through hers and squeezed. “I’m sorry, baby.”

  “No, it’s okay. I know that first night I could have nixed the deal then, despite a bunch of whining and pouting on your part, and kicking and screaming like a toddler on your part—metaphorically speaking—and it would have been the end of it. I could see how much you wanted this. I also suspected you were woefully unprepared for the realities. Kaden is an attorney and probably assumed you thought about all of this, too, which is why he didn’t push harder from the start when you scheduled the first party without doing all the paperwork first.”

  “So what else have I missed?”

  “That you need to help me find qualified volunteers. And we need people we can trust with keys and not to be running sex parties there on days we’re usually closed. Shit like that.”

  “Kel can help keep an eye on the place.”

  “I know, but he has a life and his own work, too. Again, we can’t keep relying on our friends. They’re fine with it for now, but eventually, they’re going to get tired of it.”

  “I guess I need to start attending more of the coffee times and munches in the area and talking to people.”

  “Yep. It means you’ll be DVRing a lot of stuff to watch at a later date, buster.”

  She felt a little badly for him. He loved to unwind by coming home and watching TV to take his mind off work and make him laugh. Especially sitcoms.

  Not anymore. Not for a while.

  “We can’t afford for me to hire someone full-time to do what I do at the office,” she said. “And even if we could, it would take me forever to train them. Most of what I know I learned through a lot of trial and a shit-ton of error. Mostly error, which is how I figured out what worked. That means I need you to give up your free time, too, or this club will not get off the ground and we’ll be out the money.”