Dark Xanadu by Sindra van Yssel Page B

and told Alicia to back off. Alicia stopped, and told him to get the hell out of her way, and Fred moved between the two of them. Jean kicked him, and then they were both yelling at him for interrupting their scene.”
    “He should know better than that. I can see why they are pissed.”
    Alicia and Jean were talking to Genna in the far corner of the room, in what seemed to be a very animated conversation, although at least no one was yelling anymore. Fred stood in another corner, arms crossed, a full-figured redhead next to him in nothing but her underwear.
    “Yes. But I’ll tell you, I was one tick from stepping in myself. It didn’t look consensual, or like playacting, at all. It looked like Jean was trying to hurt Alicia, when she was resisting, and I was wondering if she’d forgotten her safe word.”
    It happened. In the heat of the moment people could forget the most basic things.
    Charles continued. “She was yelling for Alicia to stop, and everyone could hear her. All part of the fun, according to Alicia, but it was really hard to stand and watch, even for me. If I had intervened, things would have gone better, I think.”
    “Maybe.”
    Out of the corner of his eye, Kent spotted Angela slipping out of his office. She didn’t come over to him. In fact, she didn’t look as if she knew where she planned to go, from the confused look on her face. But she definitely wasn’t staying put as he’d directed. He’d deal with that later.
    He walked over to Fred, since he was closest. “Heya, Star,” he said to the redhead. It wasn’t her real name, but then, it didn’t pretend to be. A lot of people felt more comfortable at a club like his using an alias. “So, Fred. Tell me what happened.”
    Fred shrugged. His head had lost a lot of its hair. Kent guessed the man was only ten years older than he, but of course people didn’t go bald at the same time. His leather vest left enough muscle uncovered to show that Fred was in excellent shape. “I got in the way of their scene. All I can say is that if they hadn’t been playacting, I would have never forgiven myself for not doing something. We get intense here, and that’s a good thing, but what they were doing just didn’t look like a scene. I’ve seen hundreds, probably thousands of scenes.”
    “Did Jean use the safe word?”
    “That’s the submissive? No.”
    Kent shook his head. “You can’t interrupt a scene because someone was yelling stop .”
    “No, I agree. What set me going was when the submissive—I don’t know her name—”
    “Jean.”
    “Thanks. Jean called her top a ‘fucking bitch’ at the top of her lungs as she tried to kick her face. I wasn’t sure which one of them was going to get hurt at that point.”
    “’Cocksucking-whore-fucking-bitch’ was the full quote, I think,” offered Star.
    “But Alicia didn’t use a safe word either, did she?” Wouldn’t that make everything simple? It was pretty rare for a Dom to safe word, but if the scene got to the point where she felt in danger, she’d certainly be justified.
    Fred gritted his teeth, took in a sharp breath, and then opened his mouth again. “No, but—”
    Kent waited. He was convinced Fred was a good man, but there was a rule against doing exactly what he did. He really wished Alicia and Jean had found a different way to play. Or that Charles had intervened. Or, if only he’d been on the floor at the time instead of having fun with Angela. But there was a reason he was in his office. He wouldn’t put it past Mario to quiz the people leaving the club, and he didn’t want to be seen in public with Angela again until he was sure Mario was out of town. Or dead. Since he recovered, he’d been trying to track Mario down, but he had nothing to go on since the vampire had no established base of operations.
    “I was out of line,” Fred said. “I’d be happy to apologize if Alicia and Jean would like. And even submit to some sort of punishment from them, if the